There weren’t as many questions this week so I’m going to talk about other stuff that has happened on my other blog, AmericanDogBlog.Wordpress.com, and things happening for us on other dog websites.

My Dog Pierson is to be on a Calendar!

I’m so happy that my dog Pierson is to be featured in the That Mutt calendar! Thank you to everyone who saw my post on Facebook and voted.

That Mutt Talks about Pet Auto Safety

Lindsay with That Mutt also talked about pet auto safety on one of her blog posts. Go check it out – Do Dogs Need Seat Belts? The article is well thought out and covers pros and cons. Feel free to comment.

Dogs Trapped in Cars After Accidents?

One of the questions Lindsay asked me prior to her post threw me off. She said she knew some people who were concerned about a pet car harness or pet travel carrier causing a dog to get trapped in the vehicle in a car accident. Can you believe that in all my years of running this business, no one has ever brought this up before?

Certainly, it can happen. I think this was a concern when seat belts for people first came out. But after years and years of research, statistics have shown that this risk is small and the likelihood of a seat belt saving a life is much greater.

If anything, I would be concerned about an unrestrained dog escaping from the vehicle after an accident. I get Google alerts for dogs in car accidents on a regular basis and so see a lot of news stories about dogs that went missing because they escaped the vehicle and ran off in terror. Think about it, after a car accident your dog is likely to be completely freaked out. His instinct is going to be to get as far away from the terrifying situation as quickly as possible. When a dog runs in terror, he runs blindly. This means he could run into the street, cause another car accident, and possibly get struck and killed by another vehicle.

Here’s a story with a happy ending. The video automatically plays, so I’m sorry about that. I don’t know how to keep it from doing that.

I understand we all have our different fears. The thing about a car accident is that it is unpredictable. You never know when you will be in a collision, let alone what kind of collision. What may be perfect for one situation may not be for another. Just consider the odds. While the above situation happens all the time, heroes like this aren’t always around to help.

SleepyPod’s New ClickIt Pet Car Harness

Sleepypod is coming out with the new ClickIt pet car harness soon and this design is also based on recommendations from the Center for Pet Safety! They are going to be expensive, but worth it. Keep posted here on this blog and I will let you know as soon as they are available.

Hop on over to the AmericanDogBlog.Wordpress.com for Pierson’s Bad Poetry Day contest entry. Seriously, it will make you laugh! 😀 Maya will feature her bad poetry tomorrow.

Where is the Pet Auto Safety Car?

As you may have read, Maya and I were in a rear end collision on July 25th. It was bad enough that the insurance company considered my car as totaled, but not bad enough to cause serious injury. Even though the car is considered totaled, I am working with the repair shop to still have it fixed. Hopefully, they can get used parts instead of new and be able to fix it for the check amount the insurance company gave me. But as of today, I still don’t have my car back!!!

How is it that a car can be considered totaled for just a fender bender? First of all, it is a Ford. That should be enough explanation, but in case you’re wanting more… My car is a 1998. Why in the heck would I want to keep such an old car? Believe it or not, it only has 87,000 miles on it and it is still running well. Also, it was more than just the bumper that was damaged. It turns out the frame is bent too, and other stuff.

K9 Car Fence

A lot of you commented on what a great idea the K9 Car Fence is. Pierson didn’t think so, but I thought it was brilliant too! I wish I had thought of it. 😉

Pierson is testing the K9 Car Fence.

Questions or Comments?

As always, if you have any questions about pet travel, feel free to ask them by commenting below or by emailing me at naturebydawn@aol.com. I’d love to hear from you!

Join the Blog Hop

Thank you for stopping by and reading my long-winded post today! Follow Up Friday is hosted by Heart Like a Dog and co-hosted by Flea with JonesNaturalChews so be sure to go check them out. Other dog blogs participating in Follow Up Friday can be found in the blog hop links below.

Great follow up. We once had a car “totaled” and did the same thing you did. It was an older model Volvo and our real dogmobile at the time. So sturdy that noone was injured in the accident. Hope you get yours back soon and so glad noone was hurt!

It might be 89,000… I can’t remember off the top of my head. I bought it in 2007 (I think) and it only had 35,000 miles on it. I’ve driven it to Texas and back quite a few times, but other than a few errands around town I don’t drive it that much.

Update on my car… I just got it back about two hours ago. I drove around running errands, got it home, then it died on me! The auto body shop sent a guy over to check it out and he couldn’t figure it out. Battery is fine. Fuel is fine. Doesn’t sound like the starter. There is a fuel pump under the car that was possibly damaged in the collision, but since the car was running fine at the shop they didn’t check it. So now, I have to wait for a tow truck to get here and take it to an auto repair shop.

Thanks so much for sharing my dog seatbelt post. It’s such an interesting topic to me and I agree that the chances of a dog becoming trapped is a small risk compared to the risk of the dog flying around in the car in an accident.